A Look At TV Horror Host BOB WILKINS, The Movies He Showed And The Unique Genre Of Northern California Television Of Bygone Days!

Dedicated to Bob Wilkins and Bob Shaw

Sunday, November 12, 2006

November 12, 1966 Schedule

On Saturday Night, November 12, 1966 on KCRA Channel 3 at 11:45PM, Bob showed two excellent horror movies. The first was "The Spider"(1958), an AIP classic directed by Mr. BIG himself, "Bert I. Gordon". It was also known as "Earth Vs. The Spider". "When a man doesn't come home one night, his daughter and her boyfriend go out searching and encounter a giant spider in a cave near the man's wreck." Now it is Bob's second movie that is a true classic.Bob's very first showing of a Universal Classic. I am talking about "The Creature From The Black Lagoon"(1954). "Creature From The Black Lagoon was originally released in movie theaters in 3-D. It is one of a few of the Universal classics to be shown on Bob's KCRA show. The more common and popular Universal Classics like Frankenstein(1931) and Dracula(1931) were shown during the day like KCRA's "Treehouse Theatre(I think that is the name of the show) that was on Saturday Mornings at 9:AM preempting some of the NBC Cartoons to show assorted kid friendly movies like Horror/SciFi Genre, Hercules, Tarzan and a few feature length Cartoons like "Gay Puree".The Universal Classics were also shown occaisionally on Harry Martin's Playhouse Theatre during the week usually around Halloween. KTXL TV 40 would later pick up the Universal Classics in 1969. Also the Universal classics would be a staple on Bob's KTVU "Creature Features" in the 1970's.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

I remember Harry Martin having a show that showcased the Marvel Super Heroes cartoons in the mid-late 60's on channel 3 during the afternoons. It didn't run long as I recall but I do remember the set had all these Marvel character posters hanging all over the set and he would be sitting in the middle on a chair. Oh the Merry Marvel Marching Society was playing too. Great stuff.